The Stars Gleam
by LimeFlamingo
Summary: [RENT]Chapter 7can more new additions help maureen, joanne, roger, mimi, mark and collins forget past pain? PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!
1. Default Chapter

The loft.  Roger walked in after a band rehearsal down at the lot.

"Hey, I'm back," Roger took off his coat as he walks in the door. 

"FUCK!" Was the only thing Mimi has to greet Roger with.  Roger paused and yelled back to her semi-sarcastically.

"Nice to see you too?"

Mimi came out of the bathroom, completely stunned, pulling her hair out of her head, barley even noticing that Roger is in the room with her.

"Oh my god, how could this be happening?!" Roger was concerned, he didn't like when Mimi flipped out, and she was doing about seven flips at once.

"What, are you okay?" He said while reaching for her waist, but she stepped away and ignored him

"I'm gonna lose my job! I don't know what the hell I'm going to do! My god I'm going to be unemployed! I-I need…"She stopped and acknowledged Roger for the first time. "WHAT?!?!" Roger was taken back by her screaming, to say the least. 

"Wh-wh-I, what the heck is going on?!"

"Hold on!" Mimi was not prepared to deal with her situation, nor her boyfriend at the moment.  She quickly decided that there was only one thing that could make this easier.  She ran to the couch and pulled up all the cushions, finding a bag of pot under the middle one "Oh thank god!" She then ran to the counter to grab a lighter, but Roger saw what she's going for, and got to it first.

"Where did you get that?" Roger had thought, no he had been one hundred percent sure that she was clean.  At the moment, this was the least of Mimi's problems.

"Um…under the couch." She stated matter-a-factly

" Mimi!" He yelled, taking the bag from her.  He couldn't believe this.

"C'mon-I really really need it!" Mimi pleaded.

"No! Mimi, what is going on?"

"I…! I…! I…" She took a deep breath as she realized that she _had_ to tell him. "Roger, I gotta tell you something…"

"Of course, babe, what?" At least she was acting almost civil now, thought Roger, he could handle this part of his girlfriend.

"But, you may want to put that," She pointed to the bag and the lighter in Roger's hands. ", down."

Roger agreed apprehensively. "Okay…Well…?"

Mimi opened her mouth but couldn't even get out a sound.  She knew he had to know, but telling him would just make it real, and that was the last thing she wanted. "I-I can't do this!" She began flipping out again, and paced away from Roger.

"Mimi, I don't understand what's wrong…" Mimi turned back to him, now clearly pissed off. 

"Oh come on Roger, just cut it out!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"This is all your fault!" Mimi screamed, of course he had known this would come eventually! "You fucked with me, Roger!  You knew this would happen!"

"What?! How? I…Mimi, I don't-" Mimi cut him off, leaving Roger afraid and completely discombobulated.

"No, not like that.  I mean, you _really_ fucked with me, Mr. "We don't need a condom!"  She was so mad at Roger for being so clueless that she was seriously considering throwing something at his head, but decided against it, for her sake of cleaning it up afterwards.  Roger had absolutely NO idea what she was screaming about…maybe she was getting her period? God he hoped so, 'cause if not, he would have to deal with this for a lot more than a couple of days.

"I'm sorry you think that, but I only tried to do" Within those thirty seconds, the one most foreign, unthought-of of idea popped into Roger's head.  An idea so scary that he froze at even the mere possibility.  Mimi gave up, she had to do it, and she figured that in the heat of this fight would be a good time to.

"MY GOD! Just listen to me, will you? YOU KNOCKED ME UP!"

Just as she said that, her eyes shifted to the doorway where she saw Mark, Maureen, Joanne, Collins and his boyfriend of about two months, Max.

"WHAT!?!?!" It was true…but it couldn't be, not for them, right?

"Oh my god!" Was all Mimi could get out after taking in the entire situation.  She began to feel the room spinning around her and put one hand on her head, hoping to stop it. "Oh my god! Hey, Mark, could you do me a favor?" Mark was far too stunned, along with everyone else, to find words.

"Uh…Uh…"

"Could you stop spinning in circles?"

"What?" Just then, Mimi started to faint, and everyone could think straight again just in time to rush over to catch her.  Maureen did but just barely, and could hardly hold her, and everyone else gathered around them, not really sure what to do, but as soon as Maureen had caught Mimi, they heard a thump.  They then all looked over to see Roger, passed out on the floor.


	2. Sorry

*Sorry, forgot to do this before.  Discalimer: I don't own ne of the characters…yadayadayada, and if I did, I wouldn't be sitting at my computer, I would be swimming in my $4000 indoor swimming pool paid for by all the money I would have gotten from coming up with all these freakishly amazing characters*


	3. You're joking, right?

[Here it is! The next chapter! Exciting, isn't it? I'm sure it is. Anywayz, enjoy! And don't worry, this is not going to be your typical story line…I have a few trick up my sleeve…well, I'm wearing a tank top right now, but you know what I mean.]

Mimi and Roger were sitting in the waiting room for Mimi's first doctor's appointment. They were sitting across from an older woman who was dressed very conservatively and have figured out she was there with her daughter in-law and son, whom had already been called into the doctor's office right before them.

" Roger…I'm nervous." She stated, shifting nervously in the hard plastic seat.

" What? Why?" He knew he was freaking out because of being a father, and everything it involved, but he was _trying_ to stay calm, for Mimi's sake.

" I dunno…I just…well, I haven't been in a hospital since I found out I was positive." She whispered.  Roger put his arm around her. 

"Oh, sweetie, don't event think about that-we're here for a good thing, right?" He was the one who needed convincing that this was a good thing.  Roger was sweating in places he didn't even know he could sweat, but Mimi bought into his faux confidence.

"I guess.  Okay, I'll try to focus on the happy things…like the fact that we are having a kid-that I am going to have to push out of my vagina…ya know, this isn't really working." She was freaking out even more.

"I know, but it'll all be okay-I know." He kissed her forehead.

"How do you know that?"

"I don't."  Mimi rolled her eyes and pushed his arm off her shoulders.  He was not being helpful.

The woman who was sitting across form them, staring at Mimi's leather mini-skirt, tall black stiletto boots that go up to her knees and her very tight red and white tie-dyed t-shirt cut half way down her chest, felt the need to comment. 

"Ugh." She spat out.

Mimi and Roger stopped bickering and looked up at her.

"Excuse me? Did you say something?" Mimi was so not in the mood for snobby pricks.

"Meems, be nice!" Not that Roger really cared, he just didn't want the attention.

"I was just thinking," The woman continued, "that you should have been on birth control, or at least smart enough to use a condom!"

"I'm sorry. I don't understand." Mimi was pretending to be nice with her best fake smile, plastered on her face.

"Well, I would think that even a-actually, especially people like you would think about that." Roger had stopped caring.

"Never mind, don't be nice." He said to Mimi before shifting his attention over to the woman. "Are you calling my girlfriend a whore?"

"Why do you think that a one night of rough, disgusting sex makes her your girlfriend, may I ask?"

"Wh-wh-are you fucking kidding me?!" Mimi was losing it, and Roger knew that bad things happened when Mimi lost it, but he was about to lose it too.  The woman was clearly insulted.

"Oh! How dare you use that language in a public place, you slut!"

"Shut you mouth, granny! You are speaking to the woman I love!" He screamed, making Mimi blush a little bit, but Roger couldn't tell if I was out of flattery of fury.

"Are you saying she is not a prostitute?"

"YES! HE IS!" Mimi said.  Roger tried to calm her down.

"Uh, Meems…" Too late.  Mimi had lost it.

"YOU ARE BEING A RUDE, OBNOXIOUS, SELFISH, BITCH!" She shrieked.  Roger just rubbed his temples, trying to get his ears to stop ringing.  He really hated this woman

"Well I say! You dress like one, it is easy for one to make a mistake." All Mimi had left to do was scream, and she did.

Just then, a man and a woman came out of the doctor's office and walked over to the woman, they were obviously the aforementioned son and daughter-in-law.  Mimi and Roger were about to say something to them, but instead they stopped dead when they realized it was Benny and Allison.

Back at the loft, the rest of the gang was just lying around as usual.  Mark was on the floor against the couch, on which Maureen was sprawled out with her head in Joanne's lap, who were directly facing Collins and Max who were sitting on the coffee table.

"I still can't believe they're pregnant." Collins stated, knowing full well that was what everyone else was thinking about.

"I know," Joanna began, twirling one of Maureen's curls.  "They make such a cute couple, but add a baby into the picture, and…" She trailed off, not wanting to insult their friends.

"And they'll just have one more thing to fight about." Max finished for her.  Max hadn't known the gang for more than a couple of months, but people got close very quickly in the loft, you either loved them or hated them.  Everyone loved Max, except for Maureen, that is.  She claimed he wasn't 'the type' for their group of friends, but they both pretended to ignore it as much as possible.

"I agree." She chimed in, to add into her show of liking towards Max. "This morning they were arguing over whether or not to take a cab to the hospital."

"Well, it's a good thing either way, right?" Collins was trying to prompt optimism, but all he got was a few weak 'okay's. "So, who wants toast?"

"ME!" Maureen yelped like a preschooler.  As Max and Collins went into the kitchen, Maureen looked onto the floor at Mark, who had been suspiciously quiet throughout the entire conversation.

"Um, I'm not feeling too great, I think I'm gonna go lie down." Mark got up, grabbed his camera and shut his door behind him without another word.  Maureen was worried about her little Marky, but she knew she should be subtle about it with her pookie.  

"I wonder what's wrong with him…" She said, barley realizing she was saying it out loud.  She got up and turned to face Joanne, whom she noticed was smiling weirdly at her.  "POOKIE! Collins and Max are in the next room…but if you don't mind, then I don't…"she moved in to kiss Joanne, but was cut off.

"No, not that!" She paused, making Maureen uncomfortable. "Honeybear, we need to talk."

"Oh shit." Maureen knew she knew about the martini glass that she had 'accidentally' broken while trying to balance all the glasses in a pyramid.  "Okay, you see, it wasn't really my fault, 'cause I was trying to balance them, and the-"

"Oh, honey, I didn't like that glass anyway, but that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about." She giggled, but her face suddenly turned to a solemn frown. "Honeybear, what do you think about having children?"  Joanne was so afraid; she couldn't believe she had just said that-she almost didn't want Maureen to answer.  

"Oh, I think it's great.  For some couples better than others, of course, but ya know, I love kids.  I think they're adorable." She said nonchalantly.

"Okay, but I was talking about us."

"What?"

"Maureen, what do you think about us having a baby?"

Maureen nearly fell of the couch.

Back in the kitchen, Max and Collins were silently buttering toast, well, Max was, but Collins was just staring dreamily at him.  Max caught his eye and looked up. 

"What?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about how great you are." He smiled.  Max smiled too.  They stood there for a minute, grinning at each other, ear to ear, like four year olds, until they both broke out into hysterical laughter.  Neither of them could breath, but Max managed to get out a few words.

"Collins, you're my Angel!"  Collins suddenly stopped laughing and took over buttering the toast.

What's gonna happen with Roger and Mimi and Benny? Will Joanne and Maureen have a baby? Can Collins bring himself to explain why the word 'Angel' makes him want to stop living? REVIEW, and then you'll find out. J


	4. It's your gravity, your hot air balloon

[This picks up the scenes right from where the last chapter left off.  And thank you sosososo much to the people who gave me reviews! They make my day! ENJOY!]

Maureen had been sitting, with her mouth open for about ten minutes and Joanne was starting to get worried.  Maureen, _her_ Maureen, speechless?! The baby question must have really scared her.

"Honeybear…" Nothing. "Darling?" Still nothing. "Jesus Christ, Maureen! Say something! EVEN A 'NO' WOULD BE BETTER THAN THIS!" She composed herself and took a few slow deep breaths.  She saw Maureen move for the first time.

"Was that a joke?" Joanne was thrilled, for the first time in a while, that Maureen had something to say.

"No" Damnitt! She thought, damnitt, damnitt, damnitt! Why the hell would she feed into this idiotic mistake…oh well, no point in going back now.

"Wh-wh-wh-why? We can't have a _baby_!" Maureen spit out the word as if it were an illegal drug, or a death-defying stunt. "Joanne, we can hardly deal with each other, never mind someone else!" She got up from the couch and started pacing, practically yelling in Joanne's face.  "What if we did, huh? What if we had a baby, and then we split up? Why would you put a child through that shit, huh? Answer me!" Joanne was being backed into the corner of the couch.  Usually it was her giving the lecture, and she wasn't quite sure what to do when she was on the other side.  Maybe Maureen had really gone crazy.

"Wh, I-" Maureen cut her off.

"Did I say you could speak?!" She shrieked.  Okay, Joanne thought, at least she was still Maureen.  "MY GOD! I CAN'T DEAL WITH YOU RIGHT NOW!!" She ran into Mark's room and slammed the door, making Joanne jump.

In the kitchen, Collins was still buttering Maureen's toast.  Max was beginning to think something was the matter when Collins had used up half of the stick of butter on one piece.

"Col, is something wrong?" He asked gently.

"No."  Collins spat out flatly.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it or something?"

"YES! I am fine, just leave me alone!" Collins said coldly, as he started taking his fury out on the piece of bread.

"You're really okay, honey?" My god, Collins felt as though Max knew it all and was just saying these things to torture him.

"Shut the hell up!" Collins left the room.  Max heard him slam the loft door.

"I don't understand why he can't talk to me."  He looked down at the massacred piece of bread and sighed.

Mimi and Roger were still staring at Benny and Allison, but they didn't seem to notice them.

" Mother, we are ready to leave, I-" Benny began, but his mother cut him off.

" These horrible people have been quite disrespectful to me!" Benny turned to see who she was talking about and saw Roger and Mimi.  At first he was in shock, but a sly grin spread across his face after no more than a second.

"Well well well, what have we here? The sex monsters finally fucked up, huh?" He crossed his arms obnoxiously.

"Shut up, Benny." Mimi hated that man so much, and as if being pregnant wasn't enough, _he_ had to be here.  She was trying to figure out what she had done to deserve this.  "Ya know, it is one thing for _you_ to call me a whore, 'cause I can kick you, but your mother…speaking of which, I'm surprised you can have kids the way I kicked you last year." Now she was smirking.

" So am I." He said flatly.  And let's just say that Allison was less than pleased with this remark. 

"Benny, just go, you dickhead." Roger didn't want to deal with Benny, nor Mimi's screaming fit that he knew was coming, as soon as he left.

" If I were not in front of my _pregnant_ wife," He used the word pregnant as if he was proud to be having a child, but all five adults in the conversation knew it had been just as much of a mistake as it had been for Mimi and Roger.  He continued. "…and my mother, you would be on the floor, begging me to stop.

"Yeah, sure I would."

"Miss Marquez?" Mimi had never been so happy to be called out of a room in her entire life.  She wanted to smile, but she knew now would not be the best time. 

"Yes." She told the nurse. "Thank god" She whispered under her breath as she got up from the pieces of crap some people called chairs. "Let's go Roger." She was practically dragging him away from Benny.

" Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Roger was in the mood for a fight, but Mimi was not, so he let her lead him in the opposite direction.

As Roger and Mimi began walking away, and Benny's mother had left the building with Allison, Benny said one more thing.

"Hey Rog?"

"Yeah?" He asked as he turned around, but right as he did, Benny's fist smashed into his cheek, and Benny then retreated out of the office before Roger could retaliate. "Aw-fuck!" He yelled in pain, holding his cheek.

"God, Roger, are you all right?" She hurried over to him, and gently touched his arm and winced in sympathy.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Roger may have lost his dignity, but he would die before he went soft in public.  "Lets go." He walked toward the office, but noticed Mimi looking anything but convinced. "Happy occasion, remember?" Mimi pretended to smile, and Roger wrapped his arm around her waist as he escorted her into the office, knowing both of their lives were about to change completely in the next ten minutes.

Maureen had been lying on the floor, while Mark lay on his bed.  They both sat in silence, only acknowledging each other's presence subconsciously.  

"Can you believe she wants a baby? I mean, me and Joanne have a-a BABY?!"

"Can we please change the subject?" Maureen got up and sat on the bed next to Mark. 

"Why does all this talk about babies and pregnancy make you so…so…blah?" Mark did not want to answer that question, especially to Maureen, but there was no way to get out of it now, so he figured that telling _someone_ would be better than telling no one.

"You really want to know?" She nodded. "And you have to swear on you leather pants that you will NOT tell another soul." He was now looking into her eyes, sitting up.

"Okay, okay." Pause. Nothing. "Well…?!"

"All right, fine." He closed his eyes and spoke so softly that Maureen had to lean close to his cheek to comprehend. "When Roger and April broke up that one time…we had sex…a lot, and…I got her pregnant."

[DUMDUMDUM!!!! What is Mark trying to say? What happened to his and April's baby? When Collin's tells Max about Angel, will their relationship be able to survive it?  What will Roger and Mimi do about Benny, and this baby? You'll have to wait and see, 'cause this week is tech week for my show, so if I get to update it will be a miracle, but as soon as I can, I will update. But review anyways! 

P.S. I know the story lines are a little separate right now, but they will all be brought together, and more story lines will cross…hope you liked it:)]


	5. I'll be there for you

[For all of you who are wondering, Max is tall, has deep olive skin, green eyes and semi-long black hair that he gels into waves.  I couldn't find anywhere to put it.  But anyways, sorry it took me so long to update, enjoy!]

Mark stopped.

"Ya know, Mo, I'm not really in the mood to do this." He got up and walked into the living room, leaving Maureen stunned for the second time that day. 

"Th-wh-wa…" She flopped down onto the bed. "This is NOT a good day!"

Out in the living room, Mark ran into Mimi and Roger who had just gotten back from the hospital.  They both looked like they were on their way to a funeral, which was ironic because it was actually the opposite occasion.  The three of them stood silently staring at each other.  Roger was the first to speak.

"Well, uh, we're having a baby…" He trailed off as Mimi started to cry and ran into their room and slammed the door.  Roger started to go after her, but not knowing what to do, he stopped.  Mark watched him as he ran his hands nervously through his hair: the Roger Davis sign of helplessness.  "Eleven week…holy fuck…" He muttered to himself, not really remembering Mark was in the room, he only remembered he was not alone when Mark spoke up.

"Rog, I need to tell you something."

"Yeah, sure" Roger answered, not really paying any attention.

"It's about April." At this Roger's head shot up.  Mark had gotten his attention, so he decided to continue.  "All right, I didn't want to bring this up now, of all times, but with everything that's going on between you and Mimi and…ya know, I just figured you needed to know." Mark tried to think of any possible way he could get out of this, but he had trapped himself in a corner and there was no way out.  "I slept with her."

"You _what_?" Roger's voice was barely above a whisper; the color drained for his face.

"I-I-it was when you broke up for those few weeks."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD FUCKING DO THAT, MARK!" Roger's voice did an amazing crescendo from a whisper to a scream in less than a second.  Mark jumped in to finish his story.

"We were lonely.  She missed you. I thought Maureen was cheating on me.  It was just several nights of stupid, fucked up sex.  But then she got pregnant, and she never told me about it.  I didn't find out until after you found her in the bathroom, Roger! When you lost her, I lost something too!"  The room went dead silent.  Like the silence after a gunshot.  Roger's face turned scarlet, while Mark's turned so pale, Roger could have sworn he could see through him.

Roger walked over to Mark and shoved him off his feet, onto the couch.

"No-you wouldn't have…y-you didn't!" Roger realized that he had: his alleged best friend had knocked up the love of his life…old love of his life…he couldn't think rationally anymore.  He took all his pent up anger of the entire day and let it out in a punch that hit Mark square in the face.  To his surprise, Mark did nothing but sit back and take it.  Roger screamed, then simply left.

"Fuck" Mark got up and left too.

That night, everyone had returned to the loft for dinner-pizza.  All of them had had a chance to blow off most of their steam, however, at this point no one would speak to anyone else.  Roger wouldn't even look at Mark, who was sitting at the farthest possible point from Roger.  Maureen felt so awkward towards Mark, and was deathly afraid of what another conversation with Joanne might lead to. Joanne wished she could take back what she had asked Maureen, but knew she couldn't.  Collins and Max didn't understand what was wrong with each other, so they decided not to provoke anymore unwanted yelling. This left everyone in completely awkward silence, poking at his or her pizza, desperately wanting out of this hell.

"Where's Mimi?" Maureen couldn't stand the silence.

"Still in our room."  Roger answered curtly.  He looked like someone had just shot him through the heart.  His face was sullen, his expression annoyed, but mostly blank, but his eyes were seemingly permanently narrowed in a combination of disbelief and fury.

"Has she been in there all day?" Joanne looked worried, but it was mostly to cover up her look of embarrassment and defeat.

"I guess" Roger was afraid that is he opened his mouth for more than a second, he would breathe fire and scorch Mark to death.

"Have you talked to her?" Roger was getting annoyed at all of the questions Joanne was asking.

"No." His fury was growing by the second

"Well, if she's pregnant, she needs to eat something." Joanne got up and went into Mimi and Roger's room. 

This time, however, when someone mentioned pregnancy, no one even flinched.  It seemed to be that Mimi getting pregnant had become the least bizarre thing that had happened that day.

Joanne didn't even bother to knock.  She just walked into the room and found Mimi, lying on the bed in a pale yellow light.  Her hair was up in a messy bun and her face was streaked with black mascara.  When she saw Joanne in the doorway she rolled over, so she was facing away from the door.

"Honey, do you want something to eat?" Joanne cooed as she sat down on the corner of the bed.  Mimi shook her head.  "Mimi, you need to eat!" Mimi ignored her and put a pillow over her face.  Joanne moved to the other side of the bed and grabbed the pillow, chucking it across the room and looked her straight in the eye.  "Moping around in bed isn't going to make this any better."  Mimi gave her a look that could kill.  "This isn't _that_ bad!" Joanne got frustrated and pulled Mimi up into a seated position.

"I can't do this!" She cleared her throat and wiped a trail of mascara, which only ended up smearing even more. "I'm scared, okay?" She confessed. "I'm an ex-drug addict, I'm HIV positive, I strip tease at a night club, I can't be a mother!" She began to cry again.

"I'll help you." Joanne touched Mimi's arm gently, in comfort.

"You will?"

"Of course!"

"But why would you want to burden yourself with a baby?" Mimi thought Joanne had gone crazy.

"Well, _I_ want a baby, but Maureen…not so much." The two women paused, and the air seemed to get a little lighter.

"You asked Maureen if she wanted to have a baby?"  Joanne nodded.  Mimi shook her head in disbelief.  "N-n-no, wait, _our_ Maureen?"  Joanne nodded again, sensing the ridiculous humor in it.  Mimi cracked up laughing.

"There you go.  See? Life goes on.  And you won't have to do this alone, I promise."  Mimi sniffled and nodded, still trying to get the smudge of mascara to go away, but to no avail-she gave up.  Just then, the little light coming from the living room got blocked, and the two women looked up to see Maureen standing in the doorway, pulling at a thread coming off her shirt.

"You got me too." She began.  "I mean, I'd be no good at being a mom, but every kid needs to be spoiled by a favorite aunt, right?"  Mimi smiled, but then she looked oddly confused.

"But I still don't understand why."  Maureen walked over and plopped herself down on the bed next to Joanne.

"Well, Meems, it's because we love you and we have no life." She giggled, but was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. The girls looked up to see Collins and Max watching them.

"You can't have aunts and no uncles." Collins said as he and Max stepped in the room and sat on the other side of Mimi, who had begun laughing full out.

"Aren't you supposed to be depressed?" Max joked with a smile.

"I just want to know where the fuck you're all coming from!" Everyone was now laughing, but their joy was cut short when someone answered her question.

"We were eating dinner."  Roger's silhouette came into the room as he shoved his hands in his pockets.  He seemed apprehensive, but was letting a small smile escape from his lips.  "So, we're gonna do this…" Collins moved over and Roger took his seemingly rightful place next to Mimi, taking her hands in his own.

"We're going to do this."

"Together!" Maureen reminded them.

"We're having a baby, Meems!" Roger said with a half chuckle; his smile got brighter.

"Please don't say that."

"What? Why not?"

"Because saying it makes it true, and if it's true, it's really scary." She frowned, and grasped Roger's hands tighter.

"I know, trust me, I know.  I know it's scary, but it's wonderful too."  He kissed her forehead.

"It's wonderful too." Mimi echoed while trying to contain a stream of tears-this time from happiness.  She laughed a little as Roger moved in to kiss her, but she pulled away.  "MARK!" She hollered out the door.  "Mark, I know you're out there.  Come on, you wouldn't want to miss this disgustingly cliché moment for your documentary, would you?" Silence.

"Marky?" Maureen chimed in.  Still nothing but silence.  They wondered if he had left because he felt left out, or because of some other unknown reason.  Thinking about this made the air settle and become heavier.  Everyone got uncomfortable again.

"Pan into Mimi and Roger's room-it's gross, I know.  I'll film from up here because god only knows what's on that bed."  Mark faked a gag as he and his camera walked into the room. "Today we celebrate the product of make up sex, four times over." Everyone started laughing hysterically as Mark panned around the overcrowded bedroom.  "Oh, this just in.   Mark Cohen begs desperately for forgiveness from the father-to-be over a stupid, dumb, drunken mistake."  Roger and Maureen, being the only two people who knew what was going on, looked as though they had just seen a ghost.  They had no idea what to do.

"I'll deal with it." Roger said flatly, but convincingly.

"Deal with what?" Max questioned.  Roger had no intention of telling anyone else, so he was grateful to look up and find Mark looking through Mimi's underwear drawer with his camera. 

"Deal with the fact that Mark's filming my girlfriend's thongs." They all laughed as Roger got off the bed and tackled Mark, this time in a friendly way.

They continued to have fun.  For now, everything was okay.

[Again, I just want to apologize for not updating in forever, I will be better.  Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter; the next one should go up this week.  REVIEW!!!!]


	6. Actions speak louder than words

Maureen couldn't believe what she was about to do, but she realized that she hadn't talked with Joanne in over a week, they hadn't slept in the same bed in over a week, and they hadn't had sex in almost 3 weeks, since the 'incident'. Remembering the lack of sex the situation presented, she knew what she had to do. She banged on Mark's bedroom door. He opened it, and greeted her with a smile.

Mimi had left for the day to quit her job at the cat scratch club, she knew that dancing in a pot and cigarette smoke filled room was _not_ good for the baby, but she hated how this child wasn't even born yet, and was already taking over her life. She was over three months pregnant at this point, and thought she was hugely fat, which she actually wasn't at all. This was why Roger was cooking her dinner. He wanted to do something nice for her, and make her feel as sexy as possible, which, in his mind, was very easy. He didn't cook, at all and when it came time for him to preheat the oven like the box said, he ran to get Collins to help.

"COLLINS!" He yelled own the stairs.

"What! Did you get shot!"

"No."

"Then don't fucking scream!" Collins emerged up the stairs, obviously annoyed. "What do you need?"

"I can't turn the oven on" There was silence as Roger's face flushed with embarrassment. The silence was broken by Collins bursting out into hysterical laughter as he passed Roger, stepping into the loft. "It's not funny, I'm doing a nice thing for my girlfriend"

"Alright…you bad-ass, you." Roger would have decked him…but then he still wouldn't have been able to turn the oven on.

Maureen tried to understand exactly what had just happened, as she reached for her bra.

"Um…Mo?"

"Yeah Mark?"

"Um…sorry, but I'm just trying to remember-"

"What the fuck we just did and why? Yeah, me too." Maureen finished putting on her shoe and rose to leave. "Can we just keep this between the two of us?"

"YES!" Mark cried, a little to gratefully, he thought afterwards. "Well, possibly the three of us." He added quietly.

"Yeah, well, don't get too ahead of yourself." Maureen stated as a fresh wave of dramatics washed over her. She left abruptly and Mark sighed.

"Dear god, I hope there's never more than one of her."

Joanne came out of the kitchen to find Maureen grinning in front of her.

"Honeybear, where did you go? I thought we we're going out for dinner! Our reservations are in ten minutes!"

"We are and I know!" Maureen couldn't stop smiling. Joanne laughed a little at her girlfriend's goofy grin.

"What is the matter with you?"

"Oh nothing." She winked as she pulled Joanne, confused as hell, out to dinner.


	7. Giving them what they want

Mimi rolled over to look at her clock. It was 3:46 am. _Fuck_ she thought as she hurried out of bed and into the bathroom. For the past few weeks, her life had consisted of one thing: morning sickness. She hated throwing up, more than anything else. She groaned as she knelt miserably over the toilet. She knew Roger hadn't been enjoying getting up multiple times in the middle of the night either and she started to feel a little bad for making him. Her thoughts were cut off as another wave of nausea hit her and she continued to throw up. Just then, she felt a cool hand gently touch her pale, sweaty cheek. She heard a whisper in her ear,

"Shhh…" Roger cooed, "it's okay Mimi, I'm right here." He pulled her hair back from her face.

"Roger, I hate this" Mimi managed to get out before becoming sick again. After about ten more miserable minutes, she gasped for air, finally having finished throwing up. Roger gently helped her lean back against him as she curled herself up into his arms. He smoothed her hair and tenderly kissed her forehead. He sighed; he hated seeing her like this. He began to softly sing to her, in no more than a whisper.

"_Your eyes, as we said our goodbyes. Can't get them out of my mind and I find I can't hide from your eyes-_" He stopped as her heard a light snore. He looked down to find Mimi exhausted and asleep in his arms. He smiled slightly as he stood up, lifting her into his arms and carried her back into their bed, where he safely tucked her under the covers.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Max immediately regretted calling as the phone line began to ring. The phone rang once, twice, three times, four, five, six…Collins never did have an answering machine. Max hung up the phone and sighed.

"Where could he possibly be?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Mark jumped as he heard someone come up behind him, but he calmed down seeing who it was. Collins was silent as he took a place beside Mark without any detectable emotion. Mark simply nodded. The two stood next to each other in silence for a while. They both shuddered as a bitter wind blew through the cemetery. In January, Angel's grave looked more depressing than ever. The trees had no leaves, no colorful flowers and the sky was a bleak shade of gray, leaving no sun to illuminate the cold stone that marked the grave of someone who had once been so bright and enthusiastic and high-spirited.

Mark felt his eyes tear up, and tried to turn the other way before they fell, but as he did he heard a sniffle and turned to see Collins crying freely, shamelessly. So he joined.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Maureen couldn't look at the bathroom counter. She couldn't…well, she _could_, but she most certainly didn't want to. She so much wished she had been drunk that afternoon when she had gone over to Mark's-intoxication was a semi-valid excuse. At the time she thought it was a good idea, it would make Joanne happy, and she and Mark were both bored and slightly depressed. As she waited for the timer to ding, she ran back to the front hall to check her calendar for the 32nd time that afternoon. She groaned as she realized that her counting skills had not failed her.

"Yup, that's two and a half weeks late…what the fuck am I gonna do?" She took a deep breath. "At least I have a few hours to freak out by myself, before Joanne comes home-just then she heard the doorknob turn, accompanied by a voice.

"Honeybear! Surprise! I brought us lunch!" Maureen's heart stopped.

"Pookie! What are you doing here? You-you're s-supposed to be a-at work!" She said, in barely comprehensible English, upon seeing her girlfriend in the doorway holding her briefcase and a bag of food.

"Well, don't look so happy to see me!" Joanne said sarcastically, but lightheartedly.

"I'm not! I would be if you came back later!" Joanne no longer found this game amusing.

"Maureen, I took the whole afternoon off to spend it with you, and _this _is how you greet me? Jesus Christ, could you be any more ungrateful than that," There was a ding. Joanne's sentence stopped along with Maureen's heart once again. "What's that?"

"NOTHING!" Maureen screamed as she darted for the bathroom, planning to run in and lock the door, but Joanne beat her to it.

"What is going on? Just tell me what the fuck is going on Maureen, or I swear to god I will," Joanne didn't get to finished a single sentence that day.

"I slept with Mark." Maureen spit out, and then became a little more cautious. "But, before you flip a shit, you should look at what 'dinged'."

"MAUREEN JOHNSON, HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING, _AGAIN_, AFTER EVERYTHING WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH?" Maureen ignored her and simply replied quietly.

"Please go look, I can't do it." Joanne opened her mouth to yell again. "PLEASE!" Maureen said, exasperated. Joanne gave in and carelessly walked into the bathroom. Maureen held her breath through the silence, until she heard Joanne's briefcase hit the floor, accompanied by the bag of their lunch.

Joanne then slowly emerged from the bathroom, to where Maureen was standing in the doorway, tears stuck in her eyes, anticipating what was to come next. Joanne looked into her lover's eyes and her eyes, too, started to water, as she grabbed Maureen and swept her up into one of the most passionate kisses either of them had ever had, followed by a warm embrace, causing them to both break down in tears…tears of pure joy.


End file.
